Introduction by Prof. Victor Snieckus (Volume Editor):

In this Volume 8 of Science of Synthesis, 41 authors (M. Barbero, L. Brandsma, D. Caine, J. V. Comasseto, R. L. O. R. Cunha, R. K. Dieter, T. Durst, J. Eames, R. W. Friesen, R. E. Gawley, J. R. Green, G. W. Gribble, F. Hasanayn, A. Jonczyk, E. Juaristi, R. M. Kellogg, M. Khodaei, R. Klein, A. Kowalkowska, A. P. Krapcho, R. Lazny, S. MacNeil, M. Majewski, R. Melgar- Fernandez, C. Metallinos, A. Mordini, O. Munoz-Muniz, C. Najera, S. O'Connor, N. Ono, J. N. Reed, C. C. Silveira, V. Snieckus, A. Streitwieser, C. F. Sturino, M. Valacchi, P. Venturello, U. Wietelmann, L. Xie, M. Yus, and J. W. Zwikker) describe formation and use of a variety of compounds of the group 1 elements (Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs) in organic synthesis. Lithium compounds are described in Volume 8a, while compounds of the other group 1 elements are covered in Volume 8b.

As may be appreciated, due largely to their simplicity, many useful alkali metal reagents are difficult to search using standard databases. Therefore, we decided near the beginning that Volume 8 shall depart from the pure “organometallics” theme and that some simple compounds used either for generation of polar organometallics, in situ or otherwise, will also be covered. Similarly, the alkali metal enolates are covered although arguably they are not organometallic species. This choice of coverage resulted in a rather sizeable two-part volume that nonetheless is rather selective in nature.

The links below provide further information about Volume 8a:

• Detailed table of contents (pdf).
• List of authors.
• Volume 8 overview page.